I did a post about this one back here. I was curious about the names – as in, where the heck do they get them from. (I always had a laugh with DeForrest Kelly in Star Trek, too.) There was some enlightening discussion in the comments. It looks as if we have a social strata thing going on in the US too. Track and field athletes (generally middle-class) have ‘normal’ names, whereas American Football stars (mostly working-class) follow the JaTavious pattern. Bit like all the Tobys in Rugby Union and Waynes in soccer, I suppose. One thing is clear – these are not African names, but African-American, possibly originating in the Caribbean with some French influence.

One point – it’s a horribly sad story, and one has huge sympathy with the families involved. The names thing is just natural curiosity for me.

I’m guessing not enough commentators have worked in inner-city schools around Britain then – these names (or similiar ones; not sure what the rules about forming them are…) can be found here, normally held by kids whose family’s have come from the Caribeen in the last couple of generations. I think they are (or at least the PrefixRest of name ones) are from some form of Creole.

Incidentally, is liberty not the right to give your kids ridiculous names in the face of establishment disapproval? I ask because if you compare the number of names current (and popular) three hundred years ago and fifty years ago you will see a huge contraction in the numbers, which is presumably to do with homogenisation of culture, and the concordant growth of the state.

As for the exotic names, I’m not sure the Caribbean/Creole connection explains everything. It is common in the US where some want their children to stand out by their first names. A century ago there, they chose titles (nobility, royalty) to make the same point: Prince, Duke, etc.

Some today also use the hyphen where ‘dash’ is part of the name: ‘La-a’ (pron. ‘Ladasha’) and that is how it appears on the birth certificate.

Watchman

April 19, 2012 at 2:43 pm

I suppose then it is an indication of liberty in action – and so long as liberty allows you to change your name when you are old enough (probably about 4 in the case of La-a, when she gets sick of being assumed to be a dyslexic telly tubby), such is life.

Interesting though – in America the silliest names are given by celebrities and the urban poor. I’m sure there’s some sociological significance there, but I daren’t investigate least I lose my faith in Frank Zappa’s sanity…

The La-a incident happens to be American. I am not sure they get Teletubbies there.

Re sociological significance: you answered the question in your second paragraph.

Read up on class. The top and bottom tiers are closest in terms of habits.

General Pyston Broak

April 19, 2012 at 3:46 pm

Does that mean the Guns n Roses guitarist can be spelt / ?

Watchman

April 20, 2012 at 2:21 pm

Only if you want him to move in the direction he is facing…

Watchman

April 19, 2012 at 2:41 pm

I just normally wake up and thank God I do not have to live with the edicts of the French government (to be fair, most French people seem to do the same, which is the big problem for the French government).

What do the French government do if someone French has a child born in Britain and calls it Dwayne, registering the name here, but then claims French citizenship through partentage? Apart from laughing at the name, obviously…

nisakiman

April 18, 2012 at 6:45 pm

I narrowly escaped being called Tarquin. My mother was an incurable romantic, and I guess Tarquin has a rather Mills and Boon dashing hero feel to it….

Fortunately my father, who was somewhat more pragmatic, not to mention realistic, prevailed.

I take young master SAOT (aged nearly three) to swiming lessons once a week and also for a leisure type swim maybe once or twice a week. (He can’t swim unaided yet, but he’s getting there). I don’t exactly live in South London but there are black people in my town but I’ve never seen any at lessons whereas, I do see some black kids at ‘footie monsters’ This is an under three football skills sessions.

So parental priority perhaps explains it.

Henry Crun

April 20, 2012 at 2:17 pm

Probably because where the parents are originally from, the water usually has crocodiles in it.

Watchman

April 20, 2012 at 2:22 pm

Australia?

I think you may mean Alligators/Caymans/Snapping Turtles for those whose parents/grandparents are from the Americas.